Maybe It's a Love Song
by fiercesunshine
Summary: Sometimes, Demyx sings. Implied XigDem.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Neither does Xemnas, though he likes to believe he does.

**Author's Note:** I don't think it's horribly in character, but I think it could be, if we were allowed into Xigbar's mind a little more.

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Sometimes, Demyx sings.

Usually, the hydromancer just plays his sitar, fingers plucking the strings carefully, casually and yet with clear purpose – a paradox, just like Number IX himself (who's ever heard of a Nobody with a heart? And yet Demyx claims he has one, and Xigbar is inclined to believe him). He can sit in his chambers, or out on one of the balconies, or in the Hall of Empty Melodies, and just _play_ for hours. The songs are sometimes happy, sometimes sad; all different genres, all plays on emotions, and all of them are somehow beautiful and irrevocably Demyx. Occasionally, depending on the song, water clones will form and dance, swaying their hips and arms as they sashay to the melodies their master plays to the World That Never Was, as though they're the only ones who can hear it.

But when Demyx sings, it's different.

Demyx sings, and Xemnas will seem a little more human, taking a break from scheming or staring at Kingdom Hearts and checking in with the members of his Organization. Xaldin will take a break from training, Vexen from his lab. Lexaeus and Zexion will put down their puzzles and books and mingle, for once, while Saix will bristle but not bite, content to bask in the moonlight instead. Axel will show Roxas something he's found without making a complete ass out of himself, and Roxas will forget that he can't remember and laugh. Luxord will fold his cards and smile to himself, eyes twinkling oddly. Marluxia opens up his rooms, letting the plants soak in the music, and Larxene puts de Sade and her knives away for a time. Xigbar…

Xigbar stops hiding on ceilings, puts away his guns, lets gravity have its way for awhile, sits on the ground, and listens. He could, he decides one day, listen to Demyx sing forever… but then Oblivion happens, and plants wither, knives rust, books gather dust, and laboratory equipment is shut away. Axel doesn't bring things back from missions anymore, Xemnas shuts himself away, and Roxas trains silently, keyblades flashing and hearts reaching towards the sky as he tears into the darkness that he's always been surrounded by. Demyx sings, and Xigbar's sure that, if he still had a heart, he'd be chiding it for being so soft.

That night, Xigbar finally lets Demyx see what's under his eyepatch, and though he doesn't say it, the words hang in the air anyway: _We might not get another chance._

Everything is peaceful, for a time, and then Roxas leaves. Axel is a mess, Xemnas is composed of cold fury (or would be, but he has no heart, and so he simply 'alters the plan' – the plan that Xigbar is suddenly very, very unsure of), and the others are somewhere in-between. Luxord calls it fate, a twist to the game, while Xaldin grunts before folding his hand. Saix wants to go hunting, but that's become Axel's job, and now it's even messier than it was before.

Demyx sings for a day straight. He can't talk when he's done, and neither does Xigbar.

Now, Demyx isn't singing, isn't playing. He's emptying his coat pockets of the note cards from his previous mission in the Underworld, laughing nervously at Xigbar's jokes, and it's all Number II can do to stay where he is, upside-down on the kid's bed, because he's beginning to wonder if Demyx had been correct all along. If they do have hearts… if they have emotions… well, even if they don't, if they did, Xigbar's pretty sure that he would be in love with the kid and his music, even if it was dangerous and stupid and a million other different things that he didn't care about (he'd always been a risk taker).

"Hey, Dem?"

"Yeah?"

"…" It's hard to ask for something that isn't given freely; it's harder to ask for this than it was to ask for any sort of intimacy, and for a moment Xigbar thinks about grabbing the boy and kissing him until he has to leave for Hollow Bastion, but while the noises he makes then are gorgeous, they're not the same. "…Can I hear a song?"

Demyx smiles, and he sings.

Xigbar looks at Kingdom Hearts, threading a hand through his musician's hair, and wonders if he'll hear it again.

Maybe somewhere out there, his heart can hear it, too.

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Reviews give the Nobodies their hearts back.


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